Why Is the World Broken?
Month 1: In the Beginning — Knowing God · Why We Believe
Today's Scripture
Read together: Genesis 3:17–19 & Romans 5:12
17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” — Genesis 3:17–19
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned. — Romans 5:12
Memory Verse
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.””— Genesis 3:15 (BSB)
📖 Bible-in-a-Year (optional)
Today's reading: Job 38–39
Reading the whole Bible in a year — do this when you have extra time. (Around Day 24 of 365 — God finally answers Job out of the whirlwind.)The Heart of It
Sooner or later every child asks it. If God is good and made everything "very good," why are there thorns, sickness, sadness, and death? The Bible gives an honest, satisfying answer that no other story can. The world is broken because sin broke it. When Adam disobeyed, God said the very ground would now bring forth "thorns and thistles." Work would become hard. And "to dust you shall return" (). Death entered God's good world as an intruder. It was not part of the original design. sums it up. "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin."
This matters enormously, and it's where the young-earth view really shines for your kids. The Bible teaches that death came after sin. But the idea of millions of years says something different. It says death, disease, and suffering filled the earth for ages before there were any people to sin. Those two stories can't both be true. Suppose God called a world full of death and bloodshed "very good." Then death isn't really our enemy, and Jesus didn't need to conquer it. But Scripture says death is "the last enemy" Jesus defeats (). So when someone asks, "Why is the world broken?" we don't blame God. We point to sin. And then we point to the Rescuer of , who came to make all things new.
Around the Table
Thorns poke and ouches hurt because sin made the world sad. But Jesus is making it all better!
Let's do it: Find something with a thorn or a sharp edge (carefully!) and remember the world wasn't made with ouches.
Death and sadness weren't part of God's "very good" world — they came in when sin came in.
Let's talk: If a friend asked, "Why do people get sick?" how could you answer kindly?
Death came after sin. Millions of years would mean death came before sin. And that would make the gospel unnecessary ().
Let's go deeper: Why does when death entered the world actually matter for the message of the cross?
💬 Conversation Starter
If you could un-break one broken thing in the whole world, what would you fix first? Jesus is going to fix every last one.
🛡️ Defending the Faith
When someone says, "If God is real, why is there so much suffering?" answer kindly and confidently: "The Bible doesn't dodge that question. It says the world is broken because of sin, not because God is cruel or absent. And it goes further than any other belief. God didn't stay distant from our suffering. He entered it Himself in Jesus. He took the worst of it at the cross. And He promised to wipe away every tear. The brokenness is real. And so is the Rescuer." Always give that answer "with gentleness and respect" (), because the person asking is often hurting, not just arguing.
For Dad · Go Deeper
The problem of suffering is the objection your children will hear most often, online and in person, so equip them now with truth rather than clichés. Notice the order of the biblical answer: sin, then death, never the reverse. This is precisely why compromising on millions of years quietly undermines the gospel. It puts suffering and death in God's "very good" creation before any human sin. But the deeper pastoral point is this. The Bible's answer to suffering is not finally an argument. It is a Person. God's response to a groaning creation was to send His Son into the groaning. Teach your kids to answer skeptics with their minds. And teach them to weep with hurting people the way Jesus wept at Lazarus's tomb.
Draws on: Natasha Crain, Talking with Your Kids about God; Ken Ham, The Lie: Evolution.
Let's Pray Together
"Father, thank You for telling us the truth about why the world is broken, and for not leaving us in it. Thank You that Jesus came to defeat death and make all things new. Comfort everyone who is hurting tonight. In Jesus' name, amen."
The world is broken by sin. But the Rescuer came to make all things new.